Who's on first? Anatomy of the federal response to drug abuse.

Organizational issues inevitably have a crucial impact on policy development, particularly in drug issues. Consequently, an evaluation of the organizational framework of federal efforts was conducted. Based on this examination, innumerable federal agencies which have authority in drug abuse exist in all three branches of government. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many areas of duplication and in arbitrarily drawn lines of responsibilities. Furthermore, the organization of federal drug efforts reflects commonly held misconceptions about the use of psychoactive substances and policy contradictions between economic and public health aspects of the usage of these substances. Finally, the coordination of federal drug efforts remains ill-defined.